Dessert

I did some pretty creative stuff with dessert stuff today.

First, I crushed some graham crackers and put it in my strawberry ice cream. It tasted like strawberry cheesecake... without the cheese. ;-) If my mom saw what I did, she'd tease me to death about having a sweet tooth and wide hips... but graham crackers and ice cream??? If you think about it, both are pretty conventional dessert items: the most accessible dessert is ice cream, and grahams, they're just crackers. We eat them pretty regularly, so what's the fuss? Combining the two just gives your plain ice cream some texture.

Second, I got a block of plain milk chocolate and put it between graham crackers (again!). I popped it in the toaster, and out came this gooey, chocalatey graham sandwich. :-o Again, texture into the plain piece of chocolate, but also a certain richness because of the cocoa.

Yum! :-)

Band-Aid on My Bed

I've taken to wearing band-aids on my feet these past two weeks. I am using new shoes, and it rubs the back of my ankle and the tops of my toes in all the wrong ways. I finished the entire box we had at home (hey, there weren't too many left in it), so I had to buy a fresh box. I got the transparent kind. I thought they were cool.

The transparent band-aid I was wearing at the back of my left ankle was coming loose yesterday. I ignored it, since I was just at home. I took a nap with the loose band-aid still on. I woke up, got up to take a bath... and the band-aid was no longer there!

I thought it had probably fallen on the floor when I got out of bed. Couldn't find it anywhere, though... until early this afternoon. I was clearing some stuff I'd placed on top of my bed-- and there it was. My used, transparent band-aid, clinging to my comforter.

That was kinda gross (a used band-aid-- from my foot!), but kinda hilarious too. No wonder I couldn't find it: still bleary-eyed from the nap, it would be so easy to miss a transparent band-aid! Despite such apparent dangers posed by using transparent band-aids, I still think they're really cool to wear.

Just Around the Corner

It's undeniable: Christmas is just around the corner. I have found in my inbox what are perhaps the first few email advertisements of holiday specials.

It's not like I'm a Scrooge. I think I'm precisely the opposite, even. The Yuletide season is my most revered... which is why I hate countdowns, hearing Christmas carols, seeing Christmas decorations for sale--any hint at all of the holidays to come--this early. I love Christmas and I certainly await the season with the same level of anticipation as the next person, but bringing it on this early seems to kill some of the spirit by overexposure.

This year, though, it seems that my resistance to signs of the holidays has taken on a completely opposite foundation: I don't want it to be Christmas.

You see, I have established hallmarks--small indicators that I can expect to see at various times as the season approaches. But this year, it will be almost impossible for me to expect these indicators. I have a different life now, and that means, I can't expect the same things anymore. I won't be able to notice the days grow shorter or the air turn cooler-- because I spend the whole day inside a windowless, airconditioned office. I will no longer be starting a new semester in November-- because there are no semesters in work. There will no longer be the flurry of exams in the weeks before the Christmas break-- because, one, there are no exams to take, and two, I don't have a Christmas break.

But saddest of all, that familiar Christmas spirit--that kind that is not spoken of, but lingers over everyone--will no longer be familiar. I believe that the Christmas spirit is not something that is its own, rather it is something we create out of shared experiences with the people we value most in our lives. I have a hole in my life that used to be filled with friends and teachers. Now, I just feel alone.

I don't want Christmas to come. I loved Christmas for its spirit, and without everything that made me create that spirit, it's going to be nothing more than a date, a point in time. I guess I just don't want it to be that way. Who wants Christmas to be just a date, anyway?

Blueberry Pomegranate Tea Latte

I decided to order something different from the Tea Latte family at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf today. Normally, I ask for the Chai Tea Latte, which, as I have already wrote, is a wonderland of spices. But it's not good to stick to the same thing all the time. Things get too comfortable and that comfort prevents one from venturing into the unknown. Very simply, discovering the Chai Tea Latte was a brave frontier, and if I don't get out of that rut, I'll never know how many more brave beverage frontiers are out there to discover and enjoy.

Whatever.

Anyway, I ordered, at first, Tropical Passion but was informed that it was not available. Instead the baristas (there were two of them!) suggested the "Pomegranate". Now, I don't know what pomegranate actually tastes like. I usually taste it in blended juices. But heck, I was crossing a frontier!

The cashier had to change my receipt, and when I got a new one, it read "Blueberry Pomgranate Tea Latte". Oooohhh...

I have to hand it to the tea people (i.e. The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, not Quickly-- if you're familiar with the latter's tagline). The Blueberry Pomegranate Tea Latte was so fully fruity! The blueberry taste stands out at the sipping point, but there is a sort of citrus-y aftertaste, which I guess would be the pomegranate.

The Tea Leaf is really a genius with their tea latte products. I've tasted fruit-flavoured teas before, but never blended with milk. And for me, it's instinctive to think that fruit and milk are not too pleasing combinations, both gastronomically and digestively. When I was small, I was told that I would ruin my stomach if I ate fruit and drank milk together. Besides, the creaminess of milk and the acidity of fruit seemed like such polar opposites, I didn't think they could ever go together.

Then I guess this is what crossing frontiers is all about-- opening oneself to new experiences that have the power to change.

All that from a 12-oz. cup of Blueberry Pomegranate Tea Latte.

Likas

This is a funny, somewhat shallow post... Forgive the digression from more brooding, introspective topics that I so love to write about.

I use Likas Papaya Soap. (Haha! Now you're getting an idea of things to come...)

I've tried expensive facial cleanser brands, like L'Oreal and St. Ives, and as much as they are more pleasant to use (they smell better, are easy to carry around, and maybe the knowledge of lathering so much money on your face has to make the experience plesant, at the very least, luxurious, at the very best), I've found that they aren't nearly as effective as keeping the pimples away.

I've been using two variants of a St. Ives facial cleanser for two weeks now and I've horrifically (is there such a word?!) discovered a fairly largely pimple to the right of my nose. I think I look like GMA because of it (something that isn't so much insulting as it is embarassingly amusing).

So, forget those St. Ives tubes. I'm trading them in for the good, old Likas Papaya Soap. :)

Last Night/This Morning

As soon as my dad turned the corner upon exiting the parking lot last night, I instantly noticed a Coffee Bean store. I was pleasantly surprised to discover this. Among all the coffee houses that have proliferated in the Metro, Coffee Bean is where I believe I get value for my money. I particularly love their Chai Tea Latte--so fragrant with all sorts of spices, far different from the bitter taste of coffee, which seems to flavor almost every available beverage in Starbucks and Seattle's Best.

Vaguley aware of the store's location, I set out to find it on foot, having arrived almost an hour early at work today. The area where the Coffee Bean stands is practically uncharted territory for me. Gradually, the morning rush of another day in the city was replaced by the quiet of a residential area. I was still within the business district, but it seemed that the area was zoned for living spaces. Big trees shaded the sidewalks--damp, perhaps from an early morning rain, and littered with leaves and fruit fallen from above.

It took me 15 minutes to find the store, having taken note of the time for future opportunities to play hooky.

After that, what else can I say, but that I bought a Chai Tea Latte, which set me up for the day.

But I did appreciate that time to walk around and discover a side of Makati I had not explored before. I felt like I was in a campus again--quiet roads, big trees and silent buildings. There was a whisper of a breeze, too. These are the random little things that make life happier.